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Eyries, Temples, Summons and Livestock
Back to Races ---- Buildings ''Celestial Temple'' Dotted around some maps in the game are pre-placed buildings known as Temples. These buildings can only ever be converted and never built, but if they were to be destroyed, they simply start to rebuild themselves. After some time has passed, they become operational once more. Once converted the Celestial Temple can allow the player to produce Archons from within. Archons are a very expensive but respectably good unit that possess the spell "Cure". Outside of the Celestial Temple, Archons are only ever obtained through the race Knights and some Quests. The Knight's discount on Archons also applies to those produced from the Celestial Temple. ''Elemental Temple'' Elemental Temples allow the player who converted it to produce any of the 4 Elementals from it. As each Elemental have their own unique role, as well as differing costs, capturing an Elemental Temple can be a great asset to you. Of course, you just need to keep it protected - which is not exactly easy considering that Temples tend to be found in the middle of the map. However, these days there are quite a few different ways to get ahold of an Elemental. But, other than the Nature spell "Elementalismn", there is no other place to get a hold of all 4 Elementals together. ''Infernal Temple'' Infernal Temples are essentially the counterpart to Celestial Temples. Where as the Celestial Temple would produce Archons, the Infernal Temple would produce Daemons. However, the Infernal Temple does do things slightly different if owned by the Daemon race - it allows prodution of all the Daemon units, including their General! ''Snake Temple / Dragon Temple'' The Snake Temple has quite a back story behind those Dragon Grotesques that can be seen on it. The Snake Temple was originally a Dragon Temple back in WBC2, which allowed for production of Fire Dragons without the need to reach a level 5 keep. Right before the release of WBC3, they were changed into the Snake Temple and now allows for production of Nagas. With early access to a General, the Snake Temple can be very useful, especially on water heavy maps that prove difficult to get around to all but Nagas (and a few other water crossing units). Like Daemons with the Infernal Temple, the Ssrathi can too build nearly all their troops from within the Snake Temple, although they have to be careful as what they produce as some Snake Temples are placed on an island surrounded by water, which normally wouldn't prove any issues for Nagas. in version 1.03.25, the Snake Temple has been changed back to the Dragon Temple, but also allows production of your race's General. ''Eyrie / Nest / Brood - level 1'' Every race in the game will have access to one of these buildings. Even though there are 3 possible buildings, they are all the same stat wise, leaving only aesthetic differences. All of them will allow production of a single basic flier and can be built at keep level 2. Some races even get researches. When choosing where to place one, it's best to put them somewhere that's difficult for your enemy to get to. As the resources and time needed to fully level just one up is a costly act indeed. Doombat: +50 fire resistance to Firebats. (Dark Dwarves and Daemons only) ''Eyrie / Nest / Brood - level 2'' The building can be upgraded for a large cost, which in turn makes it slightly more durable and axpands your army limit. The upgraded building can now produce advanced fliers in addition to basic fliers. Harpy Hag: +3 combat to Harpies. (Orcs, Daemons and Dark Elves only) Golden Wyvern: +3 speed to Wyverns (Dark Dwarves only) ''Eyrie / Nest / Brood - level 3'' For a ridiculous amount you can upgraded the building further. Once again, as the building upgrades it becomes slightly more durable and further expands your army limit. But now this fully upgraded building can produce the most powerful non-Titan units in the game, Dragons! As such, one of these buildings in the hands of the enemy can be a sight for sore eyes. Due to how long it takes to produce a Dragon, you'll find yourself building more of these buildings, if not for another Dragon producing building, then for the production of advanced fliers. All in all, it can be very costly to get these buildings to level 3, but the Dragons you can then produce are worth the wait - just don't go thinking they're immediate game winning machines! ''Circle of Power'' Despite having a build cost and build time, the Circle of Power is purely a summoned building - one created through the use of the Summoning Magic sphere. The designed purpose of the Circle of Power is to improve the XP or / and the quantity of units summoned by the owner if he is nearby. (If the Circle of Power is within that Hero's command radius) This is mostly useful for summoning workers for mines (Quasits) as you can summon more with each spell than you normally would. The building is weak and will eventually disappear on its own accord, so once you have it in play, then you best make the most of it then and there. As such, it's usually better to wait until your Hero has plenty of mana - to create the Circle of Power and then spam summoning spells. However, another trait of the Circle of Power is that units will be summoned through it and not your Hero. This does mean you can cunningly create the Circle of Power within a blind spot of an enemy base and then summon an army within! Note: The Circle of Power does NOT affect Undead units raised through spells. ''Black Portal'' The Black Portal works exactly like the Circle of Power and is used in the same way. However, it only affects raised units instead of summoned ones. As you would expect, the Black Portal is created through the Necromancy Magic sphere and is designed to improve Undead units raised by spells. The building is actually more durable than the Circle of Power and even has a longer view range, but it still wont take a hit and will still disappear over time. Note: The Black Portal does NOT affect living units summoned through spells. Units ''Air Elemental'' Contrary to their ground-based counterparts, these whirls excel against swarms, as their AOE strike is both strong and wide in effect, any enemy surrounding the elemental will be struck. Unfortunately however, they are comparatively weaker than most advanced units. ''Earth Elemental'' Slow, tanky and rather huge, these are some of the best building wreckers the game can offer, doing quadruple damage to structures. It's quite difficult to actually get them to a base, but once there they can destroy it with little time. ''Fire Elemental'' Rather fragile, but quick and hard-hitting, these floating flames are capable of powerful ranged tactics (such as hit-and-runs) on enemy bases. Just be aware they are rather immaterial and thus quite fragile, so it may be wise to keep them clear of any heavy weaponry. ''Water Elemental'' Water Elementals are slower than average but are capable of taking many elemental projectiles. As the ranged variant of the Earth Elemental, the Water Elementals are incredibly dangerous simply because they deal so much cold damage. However, whilst they are very devastating, they find it very hard to tank any elemental attacks, particularly melee or cold ones due to their low resistance and an ironic vulnerability to their own damage type: cold. At the Elemental Temple, they cost less and are faster to produce than all the other Elementals. ''Lightning Hawk - Flying Missile Unit'' Lightning Hawks are better than the majority of basic fliers when it comes to offensive power, but also one of the more costly. However, that doesn't mean their damage output is great by any means, they're still only below average at best when compared to the rest of the game. They also can only attack grounded units which leaves them vulnerable to all other basic fliers. ''Bat - Basic Flier'' Bats are downright terrible. Their only uses are scouting and tower-fodder. ''Eagle - Basic Flier'' The Eagle's specialty is that it can build from both building lists and, by being a flier, you wont even have to worry about the Eagle trapping itself after building too closely to another object. They're pretty bulky and have a high combat stat for a basic flier, so they can certainly hold their own against others and are likely to come at on top. ''Phoenix - Basic Flier'' The Phoenix is the most useful basic flier around and both High and Wood Elves rely heavily on them. The reason is purely because they have the ability to convert mines, something which is usually only done by a race's General or your Hero. However, they are also limited to just the Elven races. ''Dragonfly - Basic Flier'' Dragonflies are on par with Bats. However, they can at least cause poison, allowing their otherwise-useless-bites to actually leave some lasting impression. ''Firebat - Basic Flier'' Firebats can be misleadingly good in certain conditions. Although their combat is poor and their damage output is pretty low, their fire type attack, however, allows them to chew through buildings with surprisingly good effectiveness. But with poor HP and pathetic armor, they are usually killed outright by any attacks. As such, you'll need a respectable sized swarm for them to actually do damage, but they're sure to pull down a few lone towers before going up in smoke themselves. Of course, they fare even better against towers that use elemental attacks - hitting their higher resistance and even allowing them to survive an attack or two. Although they possess a resistance to fire type attacks, they can be upgraded further in this regard. This makes them all but unstoppable at tearing down fire attack based buildings, such as those seen from Daemons, Dark Elves (with no ranged units garrisoned), Swarm and Ssrathi (with ranged units garrisoned). ''Wasp - Basic Flier'' One look at the Wasp's stats and you would wonder why they're regarded as one of the most feared flying units around. It's only then that you realize it's not their stats that make them fearsome, it's their abilities. They possess a poison attack three times stronger than that of the Dragonfly, ensuring its poison lands even against the most resilient units. But that's not all, for their biggest asset is their ability to assassinate its target! It's almost insulting to see a Dragon or even a Titan pop to a single untimely hit from a Wasp. The Swarm are the only race that get access to these flying terrors along with Heroes who have Poison magic, so you wont be seeing them too often. ''Griffon - Advanced Flier'' The Griffon is a pretty straight forward unit, possessing average stats and no special abilities. Being able to fly and attack both air and grounded units allows them to reliably help out the rest of the army regardless of where they're fighting or what they're up against. ''Pegasus - Advanced Flier'' The Pegasus takes the stats of the Griffon but trades power for speed. It also has a better attack type - crushing - which can completely turn the tide of a fight with an untimely critical hit, usually resulting in the enemy retreating. Because of this, the Pegasus's newly found speed is put to good measure by chasing down those fleeing units and getting the final strike needed to fell the enemy. Pegasi may have slightly lower offensive stats than Griffons, but they're sure to cause more of a headache for your enemy! ''Harpy - Advanced Flier'' Harpies are an interesting advanced flier, for their performance does not come from strength, but rather their utility. For starters, they're the only advanced flier in the game that takes up only a single army point, instead of the usual 2. Secondly, their ability to cause poison and drain mana can leave even the victor that slain them with something to remember them by. Harpies wont be taking down many units at all, but their ability to debilitate enemy spell casters and causes ever-growing damage to even burly units through Poison, can help weaken an enemy position to the point that you can easily exploit with the rest of your army. However, due to their frailness you'll need to send in a large flock of them to be able to pull off their abilities. ''Wyvern - Advanced Flier'' Wyverns are rarely seen, with only High Elves, Dark Dwarves and Plague Lords having access to them, but that probably is a good thing. Not only do Wyverns have good stats across the board, but they can inflict fear, too. All this, plus the capability to attack all targets, makes this flier a real monster! Although, the piercing typed attack does leave something to be desired when it comes to attacking buildings. ''Pterodactyl - Ssrathi Advanced Flier'' The Pterodactyl can only be produced by the Ssrathi at a level 2 Nest. While at first, it seems to be massively hampered by its attack type, the bonuses it gains from the Saurus Pen make them Dragon-slaying machines. Also, due to their high damage that also recieves upgrades, a swarm of these can level a base before the towers have even reacted, so massing them for a suicide run on a base that's not expecting an air assault is an effective tactic. Even without the upgrades, Pterodactyls are physically superior to most other 2nd level Eyrie units. ''Frost Dragon - Elite Flier'' Frost Dragons may be the physically weakest of all Dragons, but their ability to consistently freeze targets, as well as having a rarely resisted attack type, makes them one of the best Dragons around! Whether you use them to hinder your enemies to allow your other units / towers to exploit the speed drops or use them as outright attackers, they surely wont disappoint - even in the face of a Titan! You can even recruit one for your Hero's retinue from the official campaign. ''Storm Dragon - Elite Flier'' Although they are among the top 3 Dragons for offensive damage amounts, Storm Dragons are the least effective of all Dragons. That's not to say they're bad by any means - they're just outclassed by the brethren for their purpose. Where Fire and Swamp Dragons do obscene damage vs buildings, Frost Dragons ability to constantly freeze the enemy, Celestial Dragons and Dragonliches having a magic type attack as well as further useful abilities, the Storm Dragon simply can't compete in terms of effectiveness of its design. Its unique ability is to drain mana, but with such a short range to do this within, the enemy spell casters can pull off their magic before the Dragon can deplete their mana. In most cases the magic will be used against the Storm Dragon, punishing it for trying to perform its role. But one can't deny that its very presence does cause the enemy to re-think of what they were going to do with their spell casters. Whether it forces the enemy mages to retreat or cast their spells immediately, the Storm Dragon does have some kind of effect on them, even if it's an indirect one. In terms of just power and typing, Storm Dragons do excel at fighting Dark Dwarves where the 2 common Golem types are weak to electricity. ''Fire Dragon - Elite Flier'' The Fire Dragon is the standard for Dragons set way back in WBC1. Although not as terrifying as they were back then, they can still rip apart an enemy base with ease and are the main reason why you should never place buildings directly next to each other. Their trait of burning enemy infantry isn't particularly useful, but their main use is building bashing, where their fire attacks dispose of even the toughest of buildings rather quickly, as all buildings take +50% damage from fire attacks. Unfortunately for the Fire Dragon, WBC3 introduced the Swamp Dragon - a Dragon that is identical to the fire variant but with the added ability to erode armor. This does make the Fire Dragon obsolete for races that have access to both Dragons, such as Orcs and Ssrathi. A shame that an "acid" type was never introduced which could have widen the difference between the 2 Dragons. ''Swamp Dragon - Elite Flier'' The Swamp Dragon is arguably the most feared Dragon in the eyes of Heroes, as the Swamp Dragon's ability to erode and lower armor cannot be undone! Even Dragonslayer class Heroes have to think carefully before fighting one, for even victory will have its cost. The standard Dragon was always a decent unit and the Swamp Dragon builds on from that. As you expect, it's just as useful as the Fire Dragon for its role, but with the addition of permanently weakening enemy infantry foolish enough to challenging it. Its breath attack can occasionally cause burning, too! In WBC3, the armor system was completely changed which, not only split armor into 2 categories, but made armor in general less effective than it once were. There's no doubt that the Swamp Dragon would have been considered broken if it existed in the past games. ''Celestial Dragon - Elite Flier'' "Never judge a book by its cover", for If you were to judge a Celestial Dragon purely on its stats, you would discard them without a second thought. With the second highest cost of all Dragons and the nearly lowest stats around (it only has 15HP more than a Frost Dragon, but all other stats match), the Celestial Dragon makes its mark with its abilities. Majority of the units in the game are considered evil, resulting in the Celestial Dragon dealing double damage to the enemy more than often, effectively giving it a base 80 attack. Further more, this attack is magic based, which only a handful of units in the entire game have any form of resistance to. This means even against non-evil targets it will be likely doing more damage than the other Dragons would be. It doesn't end their, either, for the true icing on the cake is that any unit slain by the Dragon turns into crystals that the owning player of the Dragon gains as resources. This means after slaying a few units, including harmless animals, you gain back the crystal resource you initially spent on the Dragon, plus more. And that's not to mention that Celestial Dragons are found within crystal-hungry races. Failing to take down an enemy Celestial Dragon carefully will end up boosting its player's economy and potentially spell doom for you! ''Dragonliche - Elite Flier'' The Dragonliche can be utterly terrifying, and that's not just because it has the highest terror rating of all Dragons. It has the highest defensive stats of all Dragons through the use of slightly more armor and, more importantly, a missile resistance, which all make the Dragonliche incredibly difficult to get rid of, especially for non-monstrous races that must rely on missiles to pull it down. Its higher terror rating means that more of your units are likely to run in fear than when facing other Dragons, indirectly furthering its life. It can't be poisoned, diseased, nor affected by spell-induced psyche effects, neither, leaving you with the only option of brute force to handle this monstrosity. Like the Celestial Dragon, it has a magic attack to ensure there's no bulwark for its assault. It also deals double damage vs good natured units, which can further discourage certain units from trying to attack it, but, unlike Smite Evil, Smite Good comes into much less effect due to good natured units being of the minority of the game. It also has the ability to reduce enemy XP with its attack but, unless it hits a Hero or retinue unit, then it's nothing really noteworthy. Whereas the Celestial Dragon is an offensive master, with poor defensive capabilities, the Dragonliche is the complete opposite, being nigh unstoppable and all but invulnerable at night where it gets x2 HP regeneration, but with lack luster offensive abilities that puts more pressure on the raw power of its magic attack to deal destruction. Regardless, the 50% more in cost is proof enough that the Dragonliche is a force to be reckoned with! ''Eye of Oros'' The Eye of Oros is purely a scouting unit that is summoned into play either through the Summoning Sphere or by a Plague Priest. They have the highest speed in the game (except for very high level Heroes) and are highly durable. Despite the in-game help tip specifically stating they have good viewing range, there are plenty of other units which actually have a better view range naturally. But with its extreme speed, high durability and good view range, it can quickly uncover "hidden map" and not even be phased by enemy proximity. Whether you're playing a version of the game with Summon Timers, or not, Eyes of Oros will always disappear after some time has passed. ''Guardian Skull'' Although Guardian Skulls made their first unit based appearance in WBC3, they're not actually new to the WBC series. For the first 2 WBC games they were nothing but decoration - seen as apart of a tile feature, an ornament adorned some buildings and even in the form of artifacts in the possession of some spell casters. In WBC3, their unit appearance is seen only in a few battles within the campaign and can be seen in both melee and ranged forms. The ranged form is their true form and is the most dangerous. 50 magic damage is sick, and a range of 10 is just to add salt to the wound. Fortunately, you don't see many of them and are usually just set to passive - only attacking you if you get near them. The last mission of the campaign is the only exception, which is where you'll need to prepare for assaults led by them. Some mods have included Guardian Skulls into the build tree for normal gaming. Although their stats vary drastically from those above, they are always seen in the Undead army and with a ranged attack. ''Sheep'' Sheep are one of the most common animals in the game and can be seen across many different landscapes. Trolls can pick them up and hurl them for double damage. Like with all animals, Succubi can harvest them for Souls, Minotaurs can eat them for 20HP and remove any illness they were suffering from and resource creating attack effects can still affect them. (Petrify / crystallise / assassination) ''Turtle'' Turtles are usually found in volcanic terrain, including caverns. As with Seals, they're an animal which the Illusion spell "Mutate" cannot turn an enemy unit into. No races have any specific use for Turtles, aside from the usual stuff. In version 1.03.1 on onward, Trolls could also pick up Turtles for the same effect as Sheep. ''Seal'' Seals are rather rare, typically only seen in arctic terrain. There are no units have any any specific use for Seals, but they can be affected by the usual attack side-effects as mentioned with the Sheep. ''Penguin'' Penguins are found exclusively in arctic terrains, but can be the outcome for an enemy transformed through the Illusion spell "Mutate". No units have any special use for Penguins, aside from generic attack effects. In version 1.03.1 on onward, Trolls could also pick up Penguins for the same effect as Sheep. ''Camel'' Camels are the toughest and fastest harmless animals around. Seen in dirt and desert terrain, Camels don't get around much - but no one seems to have any use for them, anyway, aside from the usual stuff. In version 1.03.1 and onward, Catapults could pickup and toss Camels in the same way as Cows. ''Cow'' Cows are quite meaty, but still offer the same meal for Minotaurs as with any other animal. Like Sheep, they are pretty common - which is fortunate for Catapults, who can load them up to cause massive damage on their next attack. ''Goose'' Geese are the most common of all harmless animals and can bee seen in all but Cavern terrain. No unit has any specific use for them, but, of course, are affected by generic attack effects. Strategies Fliers Basic Fliers These creatures are usually extremely weak and can be produced very fast. They can be used by many races to screen your archers or spellcasters from tower fire. Usually basic fliers have to be in great numbers to prove any problem at all. Eagles and Firebats are an exception to this, they are far stronger than most other basic fliers due to toughness and fire damage respectively. Lightning Hawks are also powerful for a tier 1 flying unit, but can only attack ground units. Advanced Fliers Use to support armies or even surprise attack enemies. These are much tougher and stronger than basic fliers. Harpies and Pterodactyls have weaknesses though - the former can only attack ground units, whilst the latter can only attack air units. Dragons The most dangerous of creatures in the game aside from Titans. They cost an absolute fortune (1000+ of each), usually in crystal and gold, but they are flying powerhouses, easily capable of razing bases and burning armies. They all use splash attacks with different damage types and effect depending upon the type of dragon. In the late game, players must prepare to see Dragons with archers, ranged spellcasters, advanced flying units and units that are able to hit air units. Towers can also help to repell dragons, especially heavily upgraded ones. Elementals Portals, Guardians and Eyes of Oros Summon portals to increase the power of your summoning spells. At the moment, only Summoning magic and Necromancy have portals. Other spell trees cannot use these portals to upgrade their spells. They can only be used by their relative spell sphere. Guardians act like towers. They are usually weaker than towers and only last a certain amount of time (depending upon the level of the spell) but they are summoned instantly, useful for quick defence. Eyes of Oros can only be used for one thing: scouting. It is usually a good idea to put these on 'Scout' mode in the attributes menu. Otherwise, they can be used for maintaining a line of sight in an important area, liable to attack. Livestocks and their Purpose Counters *Units that can hit flying units counter flying units. *Prey on the weaknesses of the elementals and attempt to maintain control of their Elemental Temple. *Maintain aggressive action against temples. Capture them or destroy them depending upon their position on the map and how likely the enemy is to take an interest in it. *Kill livestock if you're fighting against Minotaurs. *Kill sheep if you're fighting against Orcs. *Kill cows and camels if you're fighting against Catapult using enemies. *Don't kill the respective livestock if you are the race gaining a benefit from them. *As soon as you are up against an enemy which owns a level 5 keep and a level 3 Eyrie (Nest, Brood etc), you know that they have intent on producing Dragons. These buildings are amongst the first that should be destroyed when attacking that enemy. If they gain just one Dragon, it could turn the tide of the battle. *Use the Banish spell or get and item which gives a chance to cast that spell in order to quell summoned units. *Simply waiting for the summoned unit's time limit to run out will kill them. This means that you can use distractions and massive defensive walls to attempt to time out the summoned units.